Publicly it's a matter of tone. Russia has been all "Fark you America, your president is talking about being old to make us comfortable", China has not been overtly saying inflammatory things such as this.

Privately one could imagine that China's actions are to support Russia so if Russia changes it's position China will fall like a domino, checkmate.

Createwolf:Publicly it's a matter of tone. Russia has been all "Fark you America, your president is talking about being old to make us comfortable", China has not been overtly saying inflammatory things such as this.

Privately one could imagine that China's actions are to support Russia so if Russia changes it's position China will fall like a domino, checkmate.

lousyskaterCant piss off the country that owns you I guess

I rolled my eyes so hard when I read this I got eye whiplash.

yeah they own like 2% of our debt. so funny that this ridiculous notion continues to persist...

Createwolf:Publicly it's a matter of tone. Russia has been all "Fark you America, your president is talking about being old to make us comfortable", China has not been overtly saying inflammatory things such as this.

Privately one could imagine that China's actions are to support Russia so if Russia changes it's position China will fall like a domino, checkmate.

lousyskaterCant piss off the country that owns you I guess

I rolled my eyes so hard when I read this I got eye whiplash.

Basically this. China is fence-sitting and staying on good terms with Russia as a result. The US understands and condones because that's what global politics is all about. China shares a border and history with Russia, we sort of expect them to side with Russia on things like this. But, it's understood that if Russia changes its mind, China will too.

Yes, historically China makes "great leaps forward" then falls flat . Example: China at one time had the largest navy in the Pacific, ostensibly it COULD have settled America a good while before the Europeans, but abruptly decided not to (I'm being simplistic for the sake of discussion). Now China is again late to the party, struggling to keep up by being a financial power and sparking a new round of economic colonialism, fueled by its willingness to keep a lid on basic human rights to keep its labor market low. Dragging its bloated population into a resource heavy, environmentally destructive and ultimately economic unsustainable style of growth that the west recognized as out dated 15 years ago. A few farms in Africa are not going to get the Chinese population into western style middle class and the US is now selling oil, OPECs biggest customer is now China.